NGA Bargaining

Your bargaining team has been receiving questions about some proposed entitlements and sticking points in Enterprise Agreement bargaining.

Below is a short FAQ. Please let us know if you’ve got other questions by emailing our organiser, Hannah.

Miscellaneous leave

Is discretionary (management has a choice whether or not to grant it) and is approved by the director.
Still requires evidence of need for leave be provided to management.

Family and Domestic Violence Leave

CPSU claim includes 20 days paid family and domestic violence leave, which can be accessed in addition to other appropriate leave types such as personal/carer’s leave and paid miscellaneous leave.
FDV leave as proposed by the CPSU would be guaranteed to workers experiencing family violence, rather than granted at the discretion of management.

Kinship and ceremonial leave

As above, miscellaneous leave is discretionary, whereas specific ceremonial leave would be guaranteed to all affected workers.
First nations workers want culturally appropriate leave clauses to be guaranteed and normalised.

Broadbanding

Allows workers to advance in their role without reapplying.
Encourages specialised workers to stay with the NGA as they develop their skills.
Retains flexibility for workers and management.
Commonly used across the APS, especially in highly specialised roles.

Equitable access to increment advancement for casual workers

Casual workers, especially those in the Visitor Experience Team, are the lowest paid staff at the National Gallery. They are the public face of the NGA, but management’s offer does not yet treat them with the respect and recognition they deserve.
Front of House workers are the first point of contact for the public, they welcome guests to the Gallery, staff the shop, and help with security arrangements. Yet they’re still paid at a 1.1 level and no casual worker has been eligible for a pay increase under the current arrangements in the EA for the last three financial years.
The NGA increasingly relies on casual workers to function, and it’s important that workers whose roles are casualised can secure increment advancements in the same way they would if they were permanent staff. That’s why the CPSU bargaining team has proposed extending current increment advancement arrangements to casual workers.
This is an opportunity for NGA management to signal their commitment to their workers. Multiple other agencies have got ‘improvements’ past the current government’s bargaining framework but it requires management to be willing to advocate to the APSC on behalf of their workers. Your CPSU team has been encouraging the NGA to take these steps and we will continue to do so.
One of the most female-dominated teams in the workplace is being denied a route to a regular pay rise. We know that the NGA has a plan to address gender inequality in exhibitions and the collection, but they’re currently unwilling to address gender inequality in their workforce.

Redundancy

The current EA is somewhat unclear on redundancy consultation provisions.
The CPSU position is that all redundancy consultation provisions should be brought in line to be clear that there must be one month consultation for individual employees whose roles are likely to be made redundant . Workers want to protect restrict the timeline and circumstances of staff redundancies to make sure management applies them equitably and fairly.

Pay

Under the current bargaining policy, the pay offer is three wage ‘adjustments’ tied to the wage price index of the most recent June quarter. Currently the June WPI is 1.9% and the RBA is forecasting 2.5% for the next June WPI. However, with inflation reaching 5.1%, even these projected mystery pay adjustments would mean an effective pay decrease.
The ALP’s proposed bargaining policy would scrap the WPI pay adjustment requirements on agencies, meaning far more scope for workers to negotiate a proper pay rise including backpay.